Every film and television show presents numerous opportunities for commerce. For example, a viewer watching his/her favorite show may be interested in purchasing music from the episode being viewed before the show has even ended. As another example, a viewer may want to buy a pair of shoes or other product that a character is wearing in a particular scene. In yet another example, a viewer may be interested in staying at a hotel where a certain scene was filmed.
Although many exciting consumer devices and applications are currently being introduced to enable these types of transactions, they all lack the most important ingredient—specific and detailed information about the program and its elements. In order for these transactional engines to operate they need accurate data as fuel.
An abundant wealth of information is produced during the making of a TV show or film. Composers, music editors, music supervisors and picture editors generate essential information about the music created or licensed for a TV show or film. The location manager must track each location where the filming takes place, costume designers have detailed information about each piece of clothing, and picture editors know precisely where each of these elements appears in the program. Yet, much of this detail-rich data is discarded during the process of creating the show or film. What does survive is often stored in isolated and poorly designed systems—or worse, on paper, where the critical information is notoriously difficult to retrieve and easily lost.